Overcome by CO

Posted on the Secret List....

Two Salina (KS) Fire Department members were hospitalized and numerous other people were treated at the hospital last night after being overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning in a townhouse. A civilian is also reported dead from this run.

The civilian victim was reported to be unconscious and not breathing when SFD firefighters were called to his home around 1900 hours Wednesday.

A woman who had been trying unsuccessfully to reach the man called the SFD when she went to his home and discovered him unconscious. She was sickened by carbon monoxide when she entered the townhouse, but was able to get out and call for help.

However, an SFD paramedic and firefighter who went into the house upon arrival were quickly overcome, and they collapsed. The Captain and FF/driver who were on the apparatus with them had to go in and pull them out.

Additional help was requested, and before the night was over, a total of seven Salina Fire Department members ended up being treated at the hospital for elevated carbon monoxide levels. A Salina police officer also was treated, he said, as was the woman who called 911.

The hospital reported that one person had died-would not identify but it was likely the initial victim.

The SFD paramedic and firefighter who were the first to enter the townhouse were admitted to the hospital for treatment. The source of the carbon monoxide was a car that had been left running in an attached garage. The car had run out of gas, and the battery also was run down, but SFD Fire Marshal Williams said the engine was still warm.

There are sigle gas CO meters that cost about $200 that can be clipped to your EMS bags. Why are we not using these? Or, how many of you are? We have the Industrial Scientific Rattlers, but most of the guys don't use them. Our shift has discussed clipping them to the bag on any "sick" call or unconcious call to see if we accidentally come across a CO situation that may go unreported. We need to protect ourselves better.

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on February 7, 2010 at 11:55pm

You know many of those comments that bother you and the other FF's is also based off the article presented. I was quite blunt with my response and I really am not going to make any apologies for it, but will say it was based entirely on reading this article. It is the same thing in which happens with pics, incidents, or videos which get analyzed and are put out to LEARN from. In many cases there is something wrong found in which becomes a lesson. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but if there weren't incidents like this to use as a learning tool, the price to pay to learn from making all mistakes yourself is quite high.

I can say that even in a post incident analysis, mistakes are recognized and learned from, even when some harsher words are said. You learn and move on. If this article is wrong or inaccurate, then the gripe should be with the writer, not the comments here. If things went as you later described, then so be it, the dept knows what they did, the info was updated from the source article, the lessons are there to learn.

In truthfullness though, sometimes comments will be made that will bother some, but sometimes that is enough that mistakes don't get repeated not just by the responding dept, but others to understand also. Everyone makes mistakes, there is a lesson to be learned from every incident, no two incidents are ever alike, sometimes comments are made that may strike a nerve, but as long as the lesson is learned and the responders make a full recovery is what matters.